Majhi (, , , ), also known as Central Punjabi, is a dialect of the Punjabi language. It is natively spoken in the Majha region and surrounding areas of Punjab in present-day Pakistan and India. Majhi is transitional between Eastern and Western Punjabi dialects.

The native speakers of the dialect are known by the demonym 'Majhail'.

History

There is a lack of a river boundary between Amritsar and Lahore, leading to the formation of a shared, cultural zone. Later, this area expanded to include the regions of Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, and Sialkot which lay beyond the Ravi river due to Ranjit Singh forming a polity with these core territories. Further consolidation occurred with improved transport infrastructure during colonial-rule, such as the construction of bridges. During British-rule, the Majhi dialect was spoken in the areas under the erstwhile Lahore division and its six constituent districts (Lahore, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Gujranwala, and Sialkot districts). The Amritsari strand was spoken in parts of the former Kapurthala State. Due to close cultural, economic, and logistic ties during the colonial period, the local lect of Firozpur and Zira were influenced by Mahji despite not being in Majha. After the partition-related migration of Majhi-speaking refugees to various non-Majhi areas, certain cities' local vernaculars have become influenced by Majhi, such as Jalandhar (with refugees settling there from Lahore and Sialkot), Kapurthala, Kartarpur, and Nakodar. Majhi-speaking refugees from Lahore district were also settled in the then Muktsar tehsil, leading to influence on the local language.

Subdialects and geographic distribution

Below is a list of several of the subdialects of Majhi. Due to limited documentation on specific regions, certain varieties and their respective districts have been omitted.

• Central Majhi, spoken in the Gujranwala, Lahore and Sheikhupura districts.

• Northeastern Majhi, spoken in the Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Narowal and Sialkot districts.

• Northwestern Majhi, spoken in the Gujrat and Jhelum districts.

Majhi varieties are also spoken natively in the districts of Hafizabad, Kasur, Mandi Bahauddin, Nankana Sahib, Tarn Taran and Wazirabad.

General features

Personal pronouns

Majhi does not use the second-person oblique pronoun tē̃, and instead uses tū̃.

In urban Majhi, the plural oblique pronouns tusā̃ and asā̃, as well as the ablative pronouns, are sometimes lost.

Pronominal suffixes

One of Majhi's most noteworthy features is the usage of pronominal suffixes, which it shares with Western Punjabi.

Pronominal suffixes are auxiliary replacements of the copula which act like pronouns. They function as a particular thematic role and agree to it in person and number (as a pronoun would).

The thematic/syntactic roles a pronominal suffix can function as are:

• the direct case subject

• the ergative agent

• the possessive determiner

• the addressee

Majhi uses pronominal suffixes for the second and third persons and for both present and past tense.Examples in perfect transitive verbs (marking the ergative agent):

Copula

Oftentimes, a pronominal suffix will entirely overtake the regular copula (of the same person and number) in Majhi.

This is most common with the third-person plural ne (ਨੇ / ) or nẽ (ਨੇਂ / ), used instead of han. It has become so widespread that it is now regarded as a fundamental characteristic of Majhi, used to distinguish it from other dialects.- Alternate auxiliary verbs

First person singular ā̃ or jē (ਆਂ, ਜੇ / ) is used. E.g. mẽ karnā ʷā̃ / jē (ਮੈਂ ਕਰਨਾ ਆਂ, ਮੈਂ ਕਰਨਾ ਜੇ / )

Third person singular ī or è (ਏ, ਵੇ, ਈ / ) is used. E.g. ṓ kardā ī (ਉਹ ਕਰਦਾ ਈ / )

Other Features

hē(gā) sī is used instead of sīgā.

Adverbial pronouns

Majhi uses the kiññ and kivẽ classes of adverbial pronouns of manner, which, at their base, are common with Western Punjabi dialects.- Use of -na verb ending instead of -da ending for first-person and second-person point of view

Examples of Majhi

Subdialectal differences

Northeastern Majhi

Northeastern Majhi refers to the subdialect spoken in a belt from the Sialkot District to the Ravi river.

It has considerable Doabi influence.

Northeastern Majhi uses the past-tense inflection of the verb ḍahṇā (ਡਹਿਣਾ / ) to form continuous tenses, rather than pēṇā (ਪੈਣਾ/ ) which is used by other Majhi subdialects and Punjabi dialects.In Northeastern Majhi, on top of the copula-replacement by ne, it is also common for the second-person plural pronominal suffix je (ਜੇ / ) to overtake ho.This variety of Majhi also tends to debuccalize all its non-initial non-geminated voiceless alveolar fricatives () into glottal fricatives (); i.e. the s sound is heard as a h. This h is distinguished from the regular phonetic h by its lack of tonality.

Northwestern Majhi

Northwestern Majhi refers to the subdialect spoken in the northwestern side of the Majha region in Pakistan, primarily in the districts of Gujrat, Jhelum, and Bhimber.

In these areas, word-initial 'h' is fainter and more tonal, eventually disappearing in upper Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari and Hazarewal Hindko, as well as Dogri. I.e., words like hatth (ਹੱਥ / ) "hand" are said more as àtth.

Another notable difference is the use of the suffix dā instead of gā for indicative future tense:Northwestern Majhi also has its own past-tense copula, which declines on gender and number, unlike other Majhi subdialects, whose copula declines on person and number.

See also

• Punjabi dialects

• Punjabi literature

• Jhangvi dialect

• Shahpuri dialect

• Dhanni dialect

Notes

References